House of Commons Hansard #105 of the 36th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was foundation.
David Pratt Liberal Nepean—Carleton, ON
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Natural Resources.
Recently the environment committee heard that district energy could help solve the problem of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.
What is the minister doing to encourage district energy projects? Is he prepared to act upon a major study of the potential for district energy in the national capital region which was completed last year?
Ralph Goodale LiberalMinister of Natural Resources and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board
Mr. Speaker, we are very interested in the potential of district energy systems and have in fact been instrumental in the founding of the District Energy Association of Canada.
We have worked on such projects as the Oujé-Bougoumou project in an aboriginal community in northern Quebec. I personally think the prospects with respect to other projects, including in the national capital region, are promising. It is one of the solutions we intend to pursue with respect to climate change.
Bob Mills Reform Red Deer, AB
Mr. Speaker, India's nuclear testing is symptomatic of a bigger problem. The problem is the increasing tensions between China, India and Pakistan. Instead of attacking the symptoms, the government should get to the root of the problem.
Is the government prepared to get to the root of the problem? Will Canada press for an Asian security agreement? Will it push to get these countries to sign a non-proliferation treaty? Will it get these countries to stop testing nuclear weapons?
Herb Gray LiberalDeputy Prime Minister
Mr. Speaker, Canada believes that all nuclear countries should be members of the non-proliferation agreement. It has been pushing for this type of action. It will continue to do so and it will act vigorously in concert with its allies on this important issue.
Bob Mills Reform Red Deer, AB
Mr. Speaker, as usual, we got a non-answer, sort of a liberal answer.
Canada has a special obligation and that obligation is because we have supplied so much of this nuclear technology to these countries.
Is the minister prepared for the government to show some leadership and get an Asian security agreement, get them to sign this non-proliferation treaty and get them to stop testing?
Ted McWhinney LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Speaker, we have a clear policy of not exporting Candu reactors to any country that has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty or the comprehensive test ban treaty.
We do find it passing strange, though, that the member's party opposite opposed in the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade an Asian regional security study launched by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Svend Robinson NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Mr. Speaker, my question as well is for the Deputy Prime Minister on India's nuclear weapons test.
Canada's response so far has been pathetically weak, falling far short of the tough sanctions proposed both by the U.S.A. and by Japan.
Why is the Liberal government not moving now, not after the G-8, to impose tough sanctions on India, urge it to sign the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty and send a strong signal to Pakistan that it should not follow India's dangerous lead in this mad nuclear arms race?
Ted McWhinney LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Speaker, it has been our constant policy with the Indian government and others in the region to urge them to sign the non-proliferation treaty and the comprehensive test ban treaty.
I could add to what the acting prime minister has said, that we have cancelled talks in Delhi for May 22 on CIDA aid to India. We have cancelled in Delhi for May 22 trade policy bilateral talks. We have cancelled a pending joint ministerial committee. We are doing all this in conjunction with any action within G-8.
Svend Robinson NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Mr. Speaker, my supplementary question is for the Deputy Prime Minister.
Cancelling talks is one thing, tough sanctions are what Canadians are demanding of this Liberal government. Canada's own credibility on nuclear disarmament is weakened by our support of NATO's policy allowing the first use of nuclear weapons.
Will Canada now speak out against NATO's first use policy and call on nuclear weapon states to commit now to timetables and conditions to rid the world once and for all of all nuclear arsenals?
Ted McWhinney LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Speaker, we have already said that our policy is to get people to sign the non-proliferation treaty and the comprehensive test ban treaty.
We have had before the standing committee on foreign affairs a project for the study of nuclear and general disarmament in light of the world court's recent ruling. Give us a strong report and we can act on it. You are a member of the committee.
Nuclear TestingOral Question Period
The Speaker
I encourage hon. members to please address the Chair at all times.
Rick Borotsik Progressive Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Mr. Speaker, I find it very ironic that the leader of the Reform Party speaks against the two tier health care system in the policy that his party subscribes to. However, I find it equally ironic that the Minister of Health is subscribing to Reform policy right now.
The new compensation package that is going to be put forward tomorrow speaks to enhanced medical services for those people who were infected with hepatitis C prior to 1986.
Can the Minister of Health please tell me why he is putting the universal health care system in jeopardy with a two tier health care system?
Allan Rock LiberalMinister of Health
Mr. Speaker, I caution the member not to engage in speculation about what might happen tomorrow. He can be assured that neither I nor any member of this government would ever propose any approach that departs from the principle we think is important, that all people who are ill in this country should have single tier health care to look after them.
Rick Borotsik Progressive Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Mr. Speaker, perhaps the Minister of Health could put this speculation to rest. Perhaps he can tell this House what he is going to enter those negotiations with. What is he going to offer the hepatitis C victims before 1986 and post-1991?
Could the Minister of Health please tell us what he is prepared to put on the table, in fact what the Minister of Finance has allowed him to put on the table?
Allan Rock LiberalMinister of Health
Mr. Speaker, the member should know that the provincial governments actually provide health services. They are the ones that run the health systems in the provinces. Any solution must involve and include the provincial governments, which is the reason we brought them together to one table over several sessions to make the progress we have.
My objective in sitting with health ministers from across Canada tomorrow is to forge, if we can, a consensus approach to the remaining issues. That may not be possible. It may take more than tomorrow to get there if we can get there at all. However, that is my objective and it is to that process that I am committed.
Denis Paradis Liberal Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Mr. Speaker, in recent days, Canadians having been watching on television troubling images of the Sudanese people threatened by a famine brought upon by drought and civilian unrest.
My question is for the Minister responsible for International Cooperation and for Francophonie. What is Canada doing to help the people of Sudan?
Diane Marleau LiberalMinister for International Cooperation and Minister responsible for Francophonie
Mr. Speaker, Canada has been providing assistance to Sudan for years. Through UNICEF, Médecins sans frontières and other organizations, Canada has contributed approximately $5.7 million since February. This assistance is designed to provide food, tools, seeds and emergency relief to the most vulnerable victims.
In spite of tremendous obstacles, Canada will continue to do its part.
Monte Solberg Reform Medicine Hat, AB
Mr. Speaker, the preceding has been a paid political announcement.
We know from Statistics Canada that family incomes have fallen in the last few years in a way we have not seen since the Great Depression. We also know that federal revenues are way up in a way we have never seen.
When is the finance minister going to bring in sweeping tax relief, not the puny tax cuts he brought in with the budget? When it comes to tax cuts, size really does matter.
Paul Martin LiberalMinister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, what the numbers cited by the hon. member demonstrate is that when this party was in opposition the recession from 1989 to 1993 was one of the deepest and most severe this country has ever gone through. As a result, when we took office we vowed to put in place policies that would reverse that trend.
I am glad to say that in 1995-1996 that trend was reversed. Canada is now on the road to prosperity and Census Canada and Statistics Canada have said that.
Ghislain Lebel Bloc Chambly, QC
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the President of the Treasury Board.
Quebec's only hydro co-op, in Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-Rouville, could go bankrupt if nothing is done to help it recover from the recent ice storm. The situation is as follows: there are 5,200 subscribers in a rural area spread over four federal ridings, the damage caused to the power grid totalled $10 million, and profits are minimal.
Will the government quickly answer the call for help from the hydro co-op in Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-Rouville?
Marcel Massé LiberalPresident of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for raising the issue of the ice storm. The federal government is participating in a program to compensate the province for the costs it incurred as a result of the damage. The same was done for Manitoba and the Saguenay region.
Of course, the province has primary responsibility for any damage caused by natural disasters, while the role of the federal government is to help the province support the costs involved. This is what we did by paying 90% of the costs in the Saguenay region and probably also in this case, and we will continue to do so.
Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC
Mr. Speaker, my question is to the finance minister.
The minister's rosy portrait of the economy ignores the glaring condemnation of the council of welfare and now Statistic Canada, two of our most respected organizations. It is a tragedy that there are 1.2 million more Canadians living in poverty than in 1990. Hungry people do not need empty speeches. They need jobs to fill empty stomachs.
When will the minister stop taking credit for jobs that are substandard or do not exist and initiate a job creation program that works?
Paul Martin LiberalMinister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is absolutely right. Canadian people do not need the kind of empty rhetoric we have heard coming from the NDP.
In the most recent budget this government brought in the most comprehensive set of measures possible providing access to education. What the census numbers demonstrated was there were jobs lost where people did not have education and there were jobs created where they did. That is why I ask the hon. member to ask her leader why, the day after the budget, on Canada AM she said education does not create jobs. She is wrong.
Bill Casey Progressive Conservative Cumberland—Colchester, NS
Mr. Speaker, seven years ago James Mills was murdered while in Renous prison. The Mills family has never received a full report on the death and no charges have been laid even though seven years have passed.
After I raised the issue in the House six months ago RCMP and corrections officials promised the Mills family that charges would be laid by December 20, 1997. That promise has not been kept. No charges have been laid.
Will the solicitor general honour that promise today and finally give the Mills family a little peace of mind by pressing charges as promised?
Andy Scott LiberalSolicitor General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, surely the hon. member does not believe that in the House of Commons today I can announce that we are pressing charges. That is not how the criminal justice system works in this country.
He did bring it to my attention. I made arrangements for him to meet with corrections officials and at the end of the day if charges are laid it will be done by the justice system in the province of New Brunswick.